TPF-I SWG Report - Exoplanet Exploration Program - NASA

E X O P L A N E T S CIENCE
frequency of disks at the 100 Solar System level and will test the theoretically predicted spatial
distributions such as those described in section D and Figure 4-5. In a few years after implementation of
the KI nuller, the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometers (LBTI; Hinz et al. 2003) will become
operational. LBTI also works at 10 μm and eliminates the stellar flux through interferometric
combination, but its unique design of co-mounted telescopes on a 15-meter baseline gives it a large fieldof-view
with ~100 mas resolution. LBTI is expected to push to sensitivity levels a factor of 10 below
KI's and complement KI by looking at material at ~2 times greater distances from the star.
With Spitzer and Herschel measuring excesses from 200 to 20 μm down to near Solar System levels, and
with KI and LBTI pushing to near Solar System levels at 10 μm, we can confidently expect to understand
the statistical properties of TPF targets well enough to know whether or not there exists, as theory
suggests, a population of stars with low levels of zodiacal emission. We will also have detailed
information on many individual targets, particularly at northern declinations accessible to KI and LBTI.
2.7 References
2.7.1 Science Requirements
Kasting, J. F., Catling, D., “Evolution of a habitable planet,” Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 41, 429–463
(2003).
Turnbull, M. C., The Searth for Habitable Worlds: From the Terrestrial Planet Finder to SETI, Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (2004).
2.7.2 Physical Characterization
Gaidos, E., and Williams, D. M., “Seasonality on terrestrial extrasolar planets: inferring obliquity and
surface conditions from infrared light curves,” New Astronomy 10, 67–77 (2004).
Harrington, J., Hansen, B. M., Luszcz, S. H., Seager, S., Deming, D., Menou, K., Cho, J. Y.-K., and
Richardson, L. J., “Phase dependent infrared brightness of the extrasolar planet υ Andromedae b,”
Science 314, 623–626 (2006).
Selsis, F., “The atmosphere of terrestrial exoplanets: Detection and characterization,” Extrasolar Planets
Today and Tomorrow, ASP Con. Ser. 321, Beaulieu, J.-P., Le Cavalier des Etangs, A., and
Terquem, C., editors, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA, 170–182 (2004).
2.7.3 Biomarkers
Beichman, C. A., Woolf, N. J., and Lindensmith, C. A., eds., The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF): a
NASA Origins Program to Search for Habitable Planets, JPL Publication 99-3, Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, California (1999).
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